Energy Bill [HL]

I shall speak also to Amendments 20Y and 21C in this group. These amendments concern the timing of the regulations that will affect the private rented sector. Currently, the review that is required under Clause 36 has to be published by 1 April 2014, and the regulations that will follow the review, as provided for in Clauses 37 and 40, should come into effect no earlier than 1 April 2015. The effect of my amendments would be to slip all of those dates by exactly one year. As I understand it, the Green Deal regulations themselves are likely to come into force in October 2012. If that is the case, the review under Clause 36(4) cannot start until October 2013. The report must be published by April 2014, which gives a mere six months. Since Ministers have said that a key element will be the impact of the Green Deal, it is difficult to see whether enough data from the early stages of the Green Deal will be available to reach an informed assessment. Indeed, initial take-up may well be low among the private rented sector precisely because Green Deal providers will target the very much easier owner-occupied sector rather than try to reach this diverse group of private sector landlords with different types of tenants. A key component of the review under Clause 36(5)(a) is a "““comparison of the energy efficiency””," of private rented sector properties with that of non-private rented sector properties. The British Property Federation has pointed out that the most comprehensive statistics available on housing are to be found in the English Housing Survey, but they take 18 months from collection to be published. So the review that is going to be taking place in the six months from October 2013 to April 2014 will use data that are considerably out of date and will not reflect the impact of the Green Deal. Therefore, the review, based on heaven knows what information, could lead to regulations being enforced from April 2015, only one year later. Those who are involved in the private rented sector believe that more time should be made available before something as heavy-handed as regulation under this chapter is introduced. A number of bodies have lobbied for the Bill’s provisions on the private rented sector to be modified. However, none of them has suggested a date as early as 2015. They seem to have coalesced around 2016. It is interesting that the Government’s date is 2015 while those who have campaigned most actively for action to be taken in the private rented sector are content with 2016. My amendments challenge the Government to say why the timetables set out in the Bill are fair and practical. I beg to move.